Dolphins have till Monday to decide if they will tag Randy Starks

The Miami Dolphins have only used the franchise tag once in a decade

March 3, 2013|By Omar Kelly, South Florida Sun Sentinel

The Miami Dolphins have only used the franchise tag once during Jeff Ireland’s five-year tenure as the team’s General Manager, but the franchise must decide on Monday if they will use it on one of the team’s many free agents.

The last day NFL teams can apply the tag is March 4 by the league’s 4 p.m. deadline, and so far the Dolphins have only used threats of the tag as leverage during negotiations. Placing the franchise tag on one of the team’s free agents would drastically reduce the team’s $45 million in cap space, which will be spent to sign free agents, re-signing their own, and paying for the rookie class.

Defensive tackle Randy Starks, who began his career with the Dolphins as a reserve and developed into a two-time Pro Bowler, is the Dolphins free agent with the strongest change of receiving the tag. Last season Starks contributed 27 tackles, 4.5 sacks and one interception.

“It’s a resource, certainly,” Ireland said last week. “You have to evaluate how negotiations are going with certain particular players but there’s a lot of things that go into the franchise tag, a lot of different opinions. A lot of different aspects of when you use it, when you don’t use it, why you use it. In terms of this year there’s certainly a likelihood that we could use it.”

Tagging Starks, who just completed a five-year, $20.5 million deal he signed with Miami in 2008, would guarantee the 29-year-old a one-year contract worth $8.45 million if he signed it. Starks would like to remain in South Florida, but it appears contract talks have stalled.

“I want to be a Dolphin, (and) not just for one more year,” Starks tweeted out on Sunday.

“Discount, yeah. Clearance rack, heck no!

“I want to be here and finish here!”

Problem is the Dolphins have a decent replacement for Starks already on the roster in Jared Odrick, the team’s 2010 first-round pick. Odrick, who is 6-foot-5, 302 pounds, spent all of last season as a defensive end, typically playing out of position, because of the team’s recent switch from a 3-4 scheme to a 4-3 scheme. He contributed 35 tackles and five sacks in his third NFL season.

Ireland had acknowledged that adding better pass rushers is a priority for the Dolphins, which means the team could be targeting some of the better free agent defensive ends. To sign one Miami would likely have to expose Starks to the unrestricted free agent market.

The Dolphins have already balked at the possibility of placing the franchise tag on any of the team’s other upper echelon free agents – cornerback Sean Smith, left tackle Jake Long, tailback Reggie Bush and receiver Brian Hartline – because those tags would play each player significant more than he is worth.

Beginning on March 9, other teams can begin talking with Miami’s free agents. However, no contracts can be signed until March 12th.

According to Ireland, the Dolphins plan to use its cap space and nine picks in the 2013 draft to rebuild the roster. The goal is to become more explosive on offense, and produce more impact plays on defense. That means most of Miami’s own free agents could be playing elsewhere in 2013.

Ireland doesn’t plan to seriously begin negotiations with his own free agents until this week, and it is likely that Monday’s deadline for the franchise tag means talks with Starks and his agent will intensify.

Starks could land a contract that trumps the four-year, $24 million ($12 million guaranteed) deal former Dolphins defensive tackle Kendall Langford got from the Rams last offseason.

The only time the Dolphins used the franchise tag this decade was to lock up nose tackle Paul Soliai in 2011. That season Miami guaranteed Soliai a $12.46 million contract to prevent him from hitting the free agent market. The next year Soliai signed a two-year deal worth $12 million with Miami because the free agent market had dried up while everyone waited on the signing of Peyton Manning and Mario Williams, and Soliai was opposed to relocating his family.